'via Blog this'
The cyberfication of America began when our society could no longer exist in its present form. By present form I mean the dispersed, sprawl form which forced mounting expenses for most residents of the US. Cyberfication can be seen as offering a cheap alternative to a life no longer affordable or rewarding.
Cyberfication offers for the 1960s price of a VW Bug a computer that is presented with all the bells and whistles (and language of speed) that was once applied to cars. Meanwhile, the cost of buying a car jumps ten times.
The reason for the recession beyond the last gasp of yuppie entitlement (to rape us all with impunity) was that the tectonic plates that once gave illusory stability to our affluence shifted a bit to reveal a serious fault lines in perception. As we happily adjusted to the new thing, computers, we failed to notice creeping unaffordability. The blame for this cannot be laid at the feet of anyone. Think earthquake. We fail to see what is self evident and obvious and then have blame wars.
So what does cyberfication do to save us? Why, it makes possible and inevitable the remaking of the macro realm. You see life cannot be entirely fixed by the mere elaboration of the number of miniscule apps out there. There will be a huge market for chiropractors in the future to realign the necks of those who spent their time bent over devices that did not remind them that there was an hour of reckoning coming. Fixing life involves remaking the infrastructure, redensifying, creating viable local economies - things we cannot do if we continue to believe things like rural are permanent.
Cyberficaction is calmly moving in the direction of reenabling the entire world to operate in a different way than we did when oil was gushing and cars were glutting and detached homes from here to wherever were being built complete with prescient cul de sacs. This different way will either be totalitarian, if we let the Koch's win, or an incremental waking up carried out in dribs and drabs utilizing the inventiveness of human beings.
Make no mistake. It all comes down to the rule of ten. Cyber means one tenth of what it costs to support a life based on oil and sprawl. Koch existence. Once that thinking begins to gain traction we will not blame so much as begin to look about and make all things new.
